Closing Okinawa

At noon on 15th January, Fujin was about 140 miles from Naha which is on the southwest end of Okinawa Island - see the map above.

I just spoke to Ivan - all is well and they are continuing to motor sail. There is some current against which is slowing progress and speed over the ground is around 5 knots.

The winds are around 35 knots right now with waves less than 2 metres. Some light rain showers for the last 2 days.

The idea is to pass north of Okinawa and then run down the coast with the wind behind. They probably need to check in first at Naha port before heading over to Ginowan Marina to meet with Iraha-san and fix the genoa furler.

"Fujin" is the Japanese God of Wind. The name is composed of two Chinese characters - "Fu" meaning wind and "Jin" meaning god. If you swap the order of the characters, you don't pronouce it "jinfu" - instead it is pronouced "kamikaze" or divine wind....